Wine industry in crisis

THE wine industry crisis threatens to engulf grower groups, forcing them to dip into cash reserves to stay afloat.

The parlous financial state of Wine Grape Growers Australia and Murray Valley Winegrowers was revealed at a meeting in Swan Hill last week.

The meeting - the Swan Hill Wine Grape Growers Association annual general meeting - attracted two growers.

Outgoing chairman David Dent said it was embarrassing.

Mr Dent said growers had endured the season from hell.

"We don't want to see another like it. Ever," he said.

Murray Valley Winegrowers chairman Dennis Mills said weather and disease had caused up to 100 per cent damage to crops in northwest Victoria.

Mr Mills said growers would continue to leave the industry and he feared the loss of a skills base.

"We originally had 1200 members in the Murray Valley region," he said.

"It was down to 690 this time last year. I hate to think what it's going to be in another 12 months.

"We're anticipating that, we don't like to do this, but we think we could lose as many as 200 people."

Murray Valley Winegrowers chief executive Mark McKenzie said membership had fallen to 598 and, rather than increasing fees to make up the shortfall, the board had decided to draw on reserves to fund administration, extension and research.

Mr McKenzie said up to 125,000 tonnes of grapes was lost and 25,000 tonnes downgraded this year, suitable for use only as concentrate or for distillation.

"We're going to see some shakeout of those growers before we see things improve," he said.

The meeting also heard wineries were suggesting a recovery could be up to five years away, so growers needed to decide whether they could afford to hang on or if they should leave while they had some equity in their farms.

WGGA executive director Lawrie Stanford said the organisation's finances were "not stable".